Electronic document editing applications allow users to create and edit electronic content using various types of computing devices, such as desktop computers, laptop computers, smartphones, and the like. Electronic document editing applications are generally configured to create and edit a specific type of electronic content. For example, word processing applications provide editing functionality with respect to text-based documents, and presentation editing applications are used to create and edit electronic slides and other presentation materials.
Oftentimes, document editing applications are installed on a computing device, and execute locally on the computing device to provide the document editing functionality to a user of the computing device. These locally-installed document editing applications may be referred to as desktop-based document editors, since they are typically installed and executed on a desktop computer. The electronic documents that are created or edited using desktop-based document editors may be stored locally on the computing device, or may be stored on a remote computing device that is connected to the computing device, e.g., via a network.
As an alternative or supplement to desktop-based document editors, online or web-based document editing applications have become more prevalent in recent years. Online document editors may offer similar functionality to that provided by desktop-based document editors, but in the online document editor context, the document editing application is not installed or executed locally on the computing device. Rather, the application is installed and executes on a remote computing device, and the local computing device is simply used as an interface to access the online document editor. For example, the local computing device may execute a web browser that acts as an interface to access a web-based document editor web application.
Online document editors may provide users with a number of advantages compared to desktop-based document editors including, for example, secure remote storage of electronic documents, collaboration features that allow multiple users to access and edit the electronic document at the same time, no local installation of the document editing application on the user's computing device, cross-platform accessibility, etc. In addition, users can typically access their electronic documents from any computer with a web browser and an Internet connection.